Category: News

Southport Lib Dems have come under fire for “blatant scare stories” claiming that there is a plan to relocate local hospital services to Skelmersdale.

The condemnation follows reports in Lib Dem campaign literature raising the possibility of Southport being left with just a “hospital for the elderly” while a new “Super Hospital” is built in the West Lancs town.

Several Liberal Dem leaflets claim that it’s all part of a Labour plan to downgrade Southport Hospital but local Labour politicians say that is simply untrue and it is spreading undue concern amongst residents.

Southport Labour Chair and Norwood Councillor Mhairi Doyle, says she believes the reports are “shameless” in how they try to mislead local people:

“The hospital has no plans at all to relocate services to Skelmersdale or build there and if it did we would fight it all the way. The Lib Dems know this but are deliberately spreading misinformation and concern.”

“They have spun the comments of a single Lancashire Labour councillor who said he’d like to see any new built hospital constructed in his patch – well, I can say as a local councillor myself, who wouldn’t?”

“That does not mean it is going to happen or that it is a Labour plan. I’d love to see a new hospital being built in Norwood but saying so doesn’t suddenly transform my wish into a proposal or mean that it could happen. It’s crazy to say it does.”

“These sort of blatant shameless scare stories do little but show how just divisive the Lib Dems are, and just how far they are prepared to go to mislead local residents.”

Southport’s Lib Dem councillors have also been making similar claims of a “Labour plan” online. Their opponents point out that the whole of Tory-run Lancashire County Council doesn’t have the power to implement such a proposal even if it came up with one – so presenting the hopes of a single councillor in the non-ruling group there as a plan is irresponsible.

Mhairi Doyle, Liz Savage and Janis Blackburne

Labour’s Kew Councillor Janis Blackburne described the story as “scurrilous” and one that could well backfire:

“We’ve been contacted about this by worried residents who are then pretty furious when we tell them the truth of it. This isn’t just a health matter, the hospital is also a vital local employer. It’s completely irresponsible to talk of any plan to move services or the jobs to Skelmersdale when it simply doesn’t exist.”

“We’ve seen enough of local Liberal Democrat rumour mongering to know that this is straight out of the Lib Dem playbook. With these sort of tired old tactics, it’s no surprise that their new candidate polled less than 4 percent of the vote in South Ribble when he stood there last year.”

“Southport residents are no less canny than their South Ribble neighbours when it comes to such antics and we believe they will respond in similar fashion.”

Liz Savage, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for the town, says the hospital’s future is far too important for the opposition to be playing such games with:

“We’ve had very positive talks with the hospital trust’s Chief Executive Silas Nicholls. There is no intention to move anything to Skelmersdale.”

“A new build hospital is clearly needed in Southport due to the problems with the current site – if the Tories will give the funding.”

“Staff at Southport Hospital need to know that all local parties are behind them in their desire to improve local services and are not churning out ridiculous but unsettling rumours such as this.”

“With another expected winter crisis facing the NHS, due in no small part to 42,000 nursing vacancies, you’d think local Lib Dems might have better things to concern themselves with? Sadly, it appears not.”

Southport retailers, residents and Labour campaigners have been discussing how to save local high streets as part of Small Business Saturday.

Shadow Treasury Minister Peter Dowd MP and Labour’s candidate for the town, Liz Savage, were out and about as part of a Labour campaign to listen to local concerns, asking how it can help and explaining its plans to assist small business owners and troubled high streets.

Speaking to local retailers and residents at the opening of Santa’s Grotto in Wayfarer Arcade on Lord St, Liz Savage heard that the government’s much-trumpeted plan to reduce the business rates will actually leave most shops on the town’s premier retail destination completely untouched.

Liz Savage explained:

“High business rates is the number one problem Lord St retailers have complained to me about. Yet the government, which sets the rates in the first place, proposes a solution which leaves many of the retailers here in exactly the same boat as their premises are above the low ceiling the government has set for assistance.”

“It’s great the government is finally listening to our calls to look again at business rates but it doesn’t go anywhere near the level of reform we want to see. To qualify businesses must have a rateable value below £51,000, so this won’t really help Lord St and it’s misleading of the local MP to claim it will.”

The team also visited Birkdale Village to talk to local business owners to explain Labour’s plans and listen to residents concerned about recent closures such as the RBS bank branch, which shut its doors for the last time at the start of last month.

New figures reveal that the trust’s repair bill backlog for maintenance in the categories has nearly doubled in just three years.

The NHS defines ‘high risk’ maintenance as work that is so pressing that it “must be addressed with urgent priority in order to prevent catastrophic failure”.

The local NHS trust’s repair bill for unaddressed high or significant risk work now stands at £2,154,600, a near 100% increase during the period from the previous £1,081,100.

The trust is currently struggling under a £29 million deficit due to lack of government funding and is in the process of reviewing its future options.

Liz Savage, Labour’s candidate for Southport, says the new figures show how little the government or the town’s Conservative MP really care about the NHS or local residents:

” The government’s record on this is shocking and they are playing with the safety of Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust patients and staff – so why isn’t Damien Moore calling for Tory cuts to be cancelled? ”

“ The Tories are betraying the NHS and Southport. We’re all being let down by a government that won’t pay for the vital basic repairs needed ”

” Our doctors and nurses in Southport and Ormskirk work extremely hard to look after us and the people we love, while the government is then putting us and the people who care for us into potential danger. It’s appalling.

“ Worryingly, just like with police funding, Damien Moore still hasn’t called on Theresa May to cancel the cuts she’s got planned for the next four years. ”

Southport Labour NHS 70th birthday marchers

“If you’re the MP for this area but you don’t support its people and its public services, then you’ve fundamentally failed. ”

Crime figures for the Merseyside force area have jumped once again as its embattled police service struggles to cope with cuts to officer numbers.

Figures just released by the Office of National Statistics show that from June 2017 to June 2018, police recorded crime in Merseyside increased by 12 percent. Worryingly, weapons possession leapt by 46% while violence went up by 25% and public order offences by 26%.

Since the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in coaltion cut £2.3 billion in police funding, with £100’s of millions more cut in real terms by the Conservatives alone since, the number of Merseyside police officers has fallen by 23% with over 1,000 cut, roughly 1 in 4 officers lost.

The Tory politician voted with the government last night to refuse to release the report on the effects of the highly criticised system in the town and across the country. He has been a strong backer of Univeral Credit claiming:

” The Government have purposefully managed a careful and controlled Universal Credit roll-out… Universal Credit is simple and fair and will be effective for the whole country. ”

Labour had sought that the impact analysis report was released to the public so that the full picture surrounding Universal Credit could emerge but the Conservatives and allies in the DUP voted it down by 299 to 279.

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